Subscribing to Google searches for "Radford, Va" and "Radford University" is one way I'm getting to know my new community... and the occasional international recording star. Who knew that a "UK Queen of Soul" found her roots -- and started her route around the world -- here in Radford? I suspect some folks down the hall in the music department are better informed, but I'm new in town...
For me, the news came in today's e-mail from Google, which included a recent "Soulisms" weblog interview with British-born soul and jazz vocalist Julie Dexter, who mentioned in passing that a semester in an exchange program at Radford University had quite an impact on her career:
 "... I'd play the clarinet and the violin, and got the bug for singing from
actually going to Middlesex (University, in London) and doing an exchange program, which was
actually a semester in America at a school called Radford University.
"I
was doing classical clarinet up until that point, and took my first
jazz class, in this school in America, and you know, discovered jazz
vocals. I studied jazz vocals and scatting, like Billie Holiday, Ella
Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, really got into those guys, and messed up
all the teachers in school: 'Oh I don't want to do classical any more, I
want to do jazz vocals,' and they were like 'OK then...' and I ended up doing
a major in jazz voice..."
She later joined a group called Tomorrow's Warriors, which turned into J Life, a five person group that she says became "ambassadors for music with jazz," playing as far from home as India, Columbia,
Lithuania. That was about 10 years ago.
Another quick search turned up her home page and her MySpace page, which chronicle a very impressive career... I hope Julie has stayed in touch with Radford and comes back for a visit sometime...
(Alas, a search of "http://radford.edu" and the Radford Facebook pages failed to find any mention of her.)
Back to that "Google alerts" e-mail service... Who knew that Radford had something in common with San Juan Capistrano? Well, not exactly lovely swirling clouds of returning swallows, but Roanoke Times columist Christian Trejbal suggsests you "Look past the vulture vomit."
12:41:19 PM 
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